Welcome to our first taste of autumn! I noticed this morning was especially cooler today. We’ve had a few rain showers and our fall and winter rains will be returning sooner. Perhaps they’ll return with a greater fury if La Nina has her way!

With the cooler temperatures of autumn you’ll begin to notice that many of your rose hips are turning color (or beginning to)! Ripe hips may display a variety of colors such as: yellow, red, orange, purple, black and even green! Yes… you’ll find some of your ripe hips are green just like Granny Smith apples. Collect the rose hips before you have your first frost. For some of you that may be the end of this month or next. But leave the hips on the bush as long as you can so the seeds can mature and ripen. Roses generally require 16 or more weeks to ripen properly.

Once the hips are ripe they can be collected, brought inside and the seeds removed. Remember to keep those labels correct. It can be disappointing to harvest your rose hips and misplace a label or mix it with another! (I’m speaking from experience here!) I place the rose hips by cross, into their own individual container (plastic bag or small container).The seed should be extracted from the hips as soon as possible. Don’t let the seed remain in the rose hips. It’s best to shell the seed and wash or remove all trace of the fleshy hip pulp. Be careful not to wash your seeds down the drain of your sink!! (again, experience here!)

Place your cleaned seed by identified labeled cross in to a container filled with clean, pure water. After 1-2 days at room temperature, the seeds are drained and removed from the water. I don’t throw any seeds away. You may have heard that some people recommend that you discard the floating seeds - I say no. Don’t be too hasty. Place your clean and wet seed into plastic sandwich bags (I use zip lock bags) filled with moistened perlite. Write on the outside of each bag what the cross was. I use a black waterproof sharpie pen. I believe that the recommendation is about 100 seeds to 2 tablespoons of moist perlite. Find a shoe box or something to hold all your bags of labeled seed. Put this box filled with plastic bags of rose seed in an area that is undisturbed and at constant room temperature for six weeks. Not too hot and not too cold! After six weeks of room temperature, the baggies of seed should be placed in the refrigerator (bottom salad or vegetable drawer is best) for an additional six week period. Do not freeze your seed! Don’t even think about it!! Check your bags of seed weekly during this 12 week period of warm and cool temperatures. Some crosses may germinate in the bags. If they do, you can transplant them to potting soil. Just be sure to cover the seedling with plastic bag to retain some humidity around the young plant. And, oh yeah, don’t forget to label it! In our next issue we’ll discuss planting or sowing the seed from these bags.

What else can be done in the hybridizer’s garden? Record what roses have set hips for you (either by your own hands or that of mother nature). Look at your seedlings and record in your notebook which of them show promise as a seed parent. Look at their fall bloom and record those that show promise. Look at the seedlings foliage. Which appear to be disease resistant or susceptible? Are there parents that you’ve used that appear to be giving you good seedlings?

Consider ordering your roses for fall planting now. Is there a new or special rose you’ve been intending to use? Now is the time to send in your orders to those mail order companies. Perhaps there is a rose that you’d like to propagate on your own. Fall is an excellent time for hardwood cutting and layering propagation of roses. Some roses can be propagated easily by these methods.

Steps for hardwood cuttings propagation follow. This method works great for vigorous ramblers, climbers, shrubs, old garden roses, species, floribundas and even some hybrid teas.

• Take your cutting in September. Cut rose stems in to pencil sized (length and thickness) cuttings. The cuttings should be about 8-9 inches long. Plunge the cuttings in a bucket of water before planting. Be sure to keep labels on the cuttings.
• Trim the cuttings by removing the lower leaves - allowing the upper 2 set of leaves to remain. Cut the basal portion of the cutting with your pruning shears. Trim just below a bud.
• Dip the basal trimmed portion of the cutting in a talc based rooting powder, such as: hormex or hormodin.
• Select a part of the garden that is relatively free from weeds and gets some shade. Dig a trench six inches deep with your shovel or trowel. Keep one side of the trench with a vertical wall. Fill the trench two inches deep with a sharp sand.
• Stick the cuttings so that the lower of the top two set of leaves is above the soil. The cuttings should have about an inch or two of the tops showing. Space the cuttings six inches apart. Fill the trench with soil and firm in the cuttings with your hands. Water the cuttings to settle them in.
• If you get cold weather, check your cuttings and reset them in the soil. If you are rooting cuttings of tender roses, mulch and cover them with bark, soil or sawdust.
• Be patient! Keep the hardwood cuttings well watered in the spring and summer. Fertilize them as you normally would during the growing months. Encourage shoot formation by removing any flower buds.
• Dig and transplant your new roses in late October and early November.